Matthew 27:1-26
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So we are in the section of Scripture that records the hours leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.
At this point, we aren’t days away any longer. We are hours away.
Last time we were in Matthew, Jesus had been taken in the night and questioned during the early hours of that morning .
Now it’s morning.
When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.
So bright and early, Friday morning, the chief priest and the elders of the people— that is the leadership of Israel by the way — they bound up Jesus like a guilty prisoner, and they took him to their Roman governor, a man named Pilate.
A couple things here.
The Jewish rulers have already decided that Jesus needs to die.
But you have to understand… they don’t have the ability legally speaking to put anyone to death.
You see Rome allowed the Jews to do what they wanted religiously speaking but when it came to capital punishment, and the enforcement of Laws and imprisonment and things like that… The Jews did not possess the rights to sentence Jesus to death because they were under Roman oppression.
And so they have to take it to their government.
So essentially, every person they wanted to execute according to their Jewish law, they’d have to take to Rome to see if Rome agreed with their assessment of the situation.
If Rome agrees and they believed it would keep the peace, then Rome would execute or imprison based upon their decision on the matter.
But in this case, the Jews do not have the final say.
So these elders of the people, bind Jesus up and they take him and they deliver him over to Pilate.
At this point, Jesus has been betrayed. All the things are set in motion for his crucifixion.
And Matthew‘s account flashes now to Judas Iscariot, the friend of Jesus who had betrayed him.
Listen what Matthew says here
Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.
I’ve said this in the weeks prior, but Judas Iscariot may be the most tragic person we find in the New Testament.
This was a man who had every spiritual privilege.
He had every opportunity.
He was friends with Jesus the Messiah.
THE Son of God
He was privileged to witness Jesus’s greatest acts of authority and power.
He witnessed so many different things, and yet because of the sinfulness of his heart, he betrayed the innocent.
It really is tragic in every sense of the word.
And I know it may be easier just to move past Judas without really considering him, because if we’re honest, when we think about who he was and the opportunity that he had and what he did, it’s unnerving.
It makes us uncomfortable to think that someone’s so close to Jesus could be utterly lost.
But in that we learn some things from Judas.
First, we learn the tragedy of sin’s deceit.
Matthew says here — that Judas changes his mind.
He comes to himself.
It appears, there is at least a sense of guilt that arises in Judas now that Jesus has been condemned.
Judas knew who Jesus was.
Judas knew that Jesus was being wrongfully condemned.
And so here, in this moment, we see some genuine remorse and sorrow over what he had done.
We see guilt over this sin that he had committed.
But like sin does, too often, this guilt and shame happens after we have committed the sin already.
It happens after it’s already too late and the damage has been done.
Judas has already betrayed Jesus.
Jesus has been bound and delivered over to Pilate
It’s too late to give back the money and take back his friend.
This is what sin does.
It’s happened to all of us at some point in our lives.
Where we have have been tempted into sin, and then we do sin, and then there is that guilt that arises where we wish with all of our heart, we could take it back, but many times, the damage has been done.
It’s too late to take it back.
Think of the very first sin in the garden.
You have to believe that in the moments after having taken of that fruit, the Adam and Eve looked with regret at their nakedness, wishing they could go back to what they previously had.
You know they woukld have wished to return back to that unashamed fellowship and unhindered communion with God with no sentence of death hanging over them.
But it was too late.
How many of us have done things in our lives that we still regret?
There may be things even in our lives as Christians right now that we would look back and say— “God I wish I had never gone through that season.”
We think— God if we could turn back the clock, we would go back in erase that betrayal.
For Judas, it was too late to take back the money.
It was too late to get Jesus back.
But the reality is the very reason why all this had to happen was so that people like Judas and like you and like me… guilty rebellious sinners, could have our sins paid for on the cross.
Jesus is betrayed, and he is delivered up, but the very reason why all this happens is so that Jesus could die for sinners.
And in light of that, here’s the tragic ending for Judas.
His regret and sorrow does not lead him to go and cry out to Jesus for mercy.
His regret and sorrow leads him to despair. It leads him to walk away from Christ rather than to Christ.
Here we find the danger of worldly sorrow.
Did you know the Bible talks about two kinds of grief or sorrow when it comes to our sin?
Listen to what Paul said in 2 Corinthians…
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Did you notice the two types of giref?
There is “godly grief.” And there is “worldly grief.”
The difference between to the two..
Worldly sorrow leads to death- It doesn’t lead one to repent. It’s just a sorrow over having gotten caught, or how it appears, or some other worldly reason. That’s what makes it worldly..
Godly grief/sorrow leads one to repent to turn to God to cry out for God’s grace and mercy in that there is salvation granted that deals with our regrets.,.
There is a great difference between the two.
It is right to be sorrowful over sin…I pray that we all would be broken over our sin, but let that sorrow and brokenness lead you to the right place.
For Judas, his sorrow leads him to his death.
Now let me be clear—
The case of Judas is not a case of a man who had salvation and then lost it.
The case of Judas is the case of a man who was nearer to salvation, maybe than any other person who has ever lived, and yet never trusted Him.
With Judas , it’s clear this was a man who never truly possessed salvation.
His sorrow then led to death.
I pray this morning that we are sorrowful over our sin.
But my prayer is that that sorrow would be able to be characterized as godly sorrow because our sorrow leads us to repent and turn to the Lord.
Too often, people will feel remorse or grief over their sin… or maybe they feel grief or sorrow over their conseqences of their sin… and rather than turning from their sin, rather than owning it before God and man, they may ignore it, or they may act like nothing ever happen, and just continue down the same path… that will eventually lead to death and destruction.
Others will allow that remorse and grief and sorrow over their sin or the consequences of their sin, drive them to despair to the point where they destroy themselves..
This is what Judas does.
That is what Satan would have your sorrow do.
This is another thing we learn from Judas.
We learned something of Satan’s ploys and tactics.
Satan entices, he uses, and then he leaves you empty and eventually destroys you.
Church family, you have to hear this this morning…
Sin never delivers on what it promises.
Sin never gives you what you think it will.
Sin always leads to despair and destruction.
Think about this situation in particular… For a short while, this sinful betrayal led Judas to be 30 pieces of silver richer, but eventually it would lead him to despair so much that he would give the money back and then take his own life.
And again this is where I would doubly emphasize that the most important thing we learn from Judas here is the absolute necessity of running to Christ for mercy rather than away from Him in despair.
Judas throws the money down he goes out and he hangs himself.
A man who had heard Jesus preach… He knew the message. He even knew who Jesus was, but in pride and despair, he would not come before him and ask for mercy.
It’s tragic.
As I said, Judas returns the money.. . Well then the story picks up there…
Matthew here, inspired of the Spirit, and because he is a tax collector concerned about all details associated with money tells us what happened to the money that Judas returned.
Look in verses 6-10
But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
These verses are the verses that are often skipped over without really any thought about what happens.
But it’s really an interesting and ironic thing that happens.
Judas throws the money and runs out, and so they are left to deal with the money.
The religious leaders try to make it seem like they are keepers of the Law with regard to this money, never mind the fast that they have already done the most LAWLESS and ungodly thing ever done with this very money in paying the betrayer of the Son of God.
But here… They can’t take the money back because then it would seem like they were the ones solely responsible for handing Jesus over.
They also want to appear religious because this is considered blood money and they can’t put that into the temple treasury… They wish to appear righteous here.
And so they use the money to buy a field to bury strangers..
Now that may seem like a minor point, but this was in fulfillment of prophecy.
And so in doing this, they only confirmed God’s Word about the Messiah, which now only reinforces the fact that they were wrong all along.
Just think about it for a moment—
Everything from the price of Jesus being betrayed to being the price of a slave all the way down to the fact that they would buy a potters field in order to make it a graveyard was all prophesied according to the scriptures.
Jeremiah speaks of the field bought with this blood money
Zachariah speaks of the price paid for the Messiah.
All of it absolutely according to plan.
All of it, confirming that Jesus is the Messiah of the Old Testament, the one promised the fulfiller of every little detail of the law.
And so don’t skip pass these details.
It’s glorious.
But now account shifts back to Jesus on trial.
Jesus is now standing before Pilate. Let’s look what happens.
Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Here in this section, we see Jesus modeling for us what it looks like to suffer well when wrongfully treated.
He answers the governor.
He gives honor where honor is due, but whenever those who are falsely accusing him are bringing these charges, he entrusts himself into the good plan of his father.
And so, Jesus stands there and as these people bring charges and he offers no retort.
Pilate here is confused because he’s dealt with these situations before.
I’m sure he has had hundreds people stand before him some of whom had been wrongfully accused and in those cases, what do you imagine happens?
The person wrongfully accused would offer their own side of the story.
But not Jesus. Jesus remains silent.
And once again. this is all in fulfillment of scripture.
Isaiah chapter 53 it’s very clear:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
The silence from Jesus is fulfillment of prophecy.
It happens according to plan.
It also is so amazing to think that the one who could have truly defended his innocence doesn’t.
Think about that. He hasn’t done anything wrong.
And in my experience, You never find someone more offended than when they have been wrongfully accused of doing something they haven’t done.
If you don’t believe this, the next time one of your children does something wrong punish the wrong one for it.
You will get protested like you’ve never been protested before.
“I didn’t do nothing.”
No one like to be wrongfully accused.
Here, I want you to see that Jesus had every right to speak up and defend himself.
He truly had done nothing wrong, but as he stood there, he said nothing.
He offers no defense.
And his silence was for you and me.
Jesus stands silent before Pilate when he had had every right to defend himself, so that you and I can stand boldly before God, when we truly have no defense.
Jesus suffered in silence so that he may speak for us a better word than what our own guilt speaks.
And at the end of verse 14, Pilate is amazed that Jesus takes no effort to defend himself.
But Pilate can see through all of this. He knows Jesus is innocent..
And so look what he does— he is going to try and get Jesus released…
Look beginning in verse 15
Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
So a little background here… Pilate customarily would release a prisoner and grant amnesty to one prisoner for the Jews during this time.
It was their Passover time, and so it was sort of Rome’s tribute to them during this time.
But I think Pilate thought he was slick here.
He takes a man named Barabbas.
And we don’t know much about this man— only that he was a problem.
A well known problem.
We are told in Mark 15:7 thathe was a murderer.
And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas.
We are told in John that he was a thief.
This was one of those well documented well known criminals.
Even in a day where media would not have been like we have today, this was a man most likely they all knew.
And so Pilate assesses the situation himself and his belief is that surely they will not let this envy cloud their judgment this much.
Surely, when given the choice between releasing Jesus the healer, the teacher, the feeder of the 5000– and Barabbas the murderer and the thief.
Surely they’ll make the right decision.
And I believe Pilate does this for a number of reasons.
First, Pilate believed that Jesus was innocent himself.
Second, his wife had sent him a letter, encouraging him not to have anything to do with this man. Because she was tormented in a dream the night before over Jesus.
And so Pilate is trying to get Jesus free without upsetting the people and causing an uprising.
So he’s trying in an indirect way to get the people to choose to release Jesus.
But that’s not what happens.
The elders among the people began to persuade the crowd to ask Pilate to release Barabbas rather than Jesus.
And so that’s what they do.
They ask for Barabbas
Feel the tension here in this moment.
Pilate Thought that there was no way that they were going to choose Barabass over Jesus.
But now that they have, what should he do with Jesus?
In his mind.. Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong to put him in prison for.
He hasn’t done anything wrong for him to beat him for.
He hasn’t done anything wrong to receive crucifixion for.
But Pilate, though he is in a position of strength and power is actually a very weak man.
Because even though he knows he is innocent , Pilate will let this crowd in the ruckus they call lead him to approve the single most heinous thing it’s ever been done.
They want him crucified, and that is what he grants.
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
Pilate, pressured by the crowd, symbolically “washes his hands” to claim innocence in Jesus’ death.
But that doesn’t remove his guilt—Pilate knowingly condemns an innocent man.
And the Jews are equally as brazen.. they say, “His blood be on us and our children.”
It will..
This statement shows their willful and rebellious rejection of Jesus.
And so Pilate realeases Barabbas, and he turns Jesus over to be crucified.
What a picture we have here.. in Barabbas and Jesus.
This is the very heart of the gospel.
The innocent in the place of the guilty.
That is the message of the Gospel.
The guilty walks free; the innocent condemned.
Barabbas lives because Jesus dies.
The murderer goes home; the Author of life goes to the cross.
As we think about how this passage applies, man I hope you are absolutely captivated by the grace and mercy we see here.
First, in that all of this is not by happen stance but is all accroding to the sovereign purposes of God…. All of this planned before the foundation of the world.
But also, my prayer is that we respond rightly to what we read here.
We could look at this and see Jesus the innocent condemned in the place of the guilty, and rightly feel guilty over our sin and then wrongly let that lead us to the wrong place of despair.
There is where we see Judas go wrong.
But This message isn’t a message of despair. It is a message of hope and mercy and grace.
Imagine this for moment…
A well known guilty man sits on death row.
He’s guilty. Everyone knows it. His crimes were brutal, caught on video, undeniable.
The verdict is in. The sentence is final.
But then, suddenly, a pardon is issued.
There’s no new evidence. There’s no legal technicality.
No a pardon is issued because the just payment has been made…
Someone else, one who was completely innocent, voluntarily takes his place to die the death he deserved.
And so, the jail door is unlocked, and the guilty man walks out free.
The innocent man is executed.
Can you imagine this? The headlines? The outrage?
That’s Barabbas’s story.
That’s your story and my story if we are believers.
That’s the gospel.
The fact is we all stand condemned for our sin. The wages of sin is death.
We deserve it. That is what is coming our way.
But God sends his son, the innocent and the righteous one to the earth, where upon getting here, he would live perfectly, then he would go and stand silently before unjust people, and then be nailed to a cross, where on that cross, he would not just suffer physically… No, because he is truly man and truly God, he is able to stand innocently as man in my place, and as God absorb in totality the wrath that was due to me and to every other believer there.
There on that cross, he died, and three days later, in accordance with the Scripture, his body would raise glorified as the first fruits of those of us who beleive. He ascended to the Father and one day, he promises to come back and get every last one of His people.
The question is are you one of His?
Have you called upon the name of the Lord?
Have you cried out for mercy the this great and mighty Savior?
My prayer as we consider this is that we are changed by that message, that we would see the hope of the gospel for what it is, and come to the one who died in our place so that we may go free.
He was silent, so that I can now shout “No condemnation.”
He died, so that I can live.
That is a message worth celebrating,. That is the message that changed my life at 18 and its the message that changes lives today.
Trust in Christ. Trust in the gracious Savior and substitute for all believers.
Eschatology ending
He is coming back with a message revelation 1:8
